Wee Hyongweehyong@sgdotnet.org

working out with

Windows Workflow FoundationWindows Workflow Foundation

Windows Workflow FoundationWindows Workflow FoundationAgenda

Intro to Workflow FoundationWorkflow BasicsDifferent ways of authoring workflowsDemos- WF Designer- Sequential Workflow- State Machine Workflow- Embedded WF Desinger Control

Looking forward ….Conclusion

What is a workflow?Workflow is the operational aspect of a work procedure: howtasks are structured, who performs them, what their relativeorder is, how they are synchronized, how information flowsto support the tasks and how tasks are being tracked

Src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workflow

Modeled as a flowchartModeled as a flowchart……. .

Or a state diagramOr a state diagram……. .

Workflow Scenario Spectrum

• Participants: people, roles• Flow style: flexible, dynamic• Data: unstructured, documents

• Participants: apps, services• Flow style: prescriptive, protocols• Data: structured, transactional

Information Worker• Document Review…Information Worker• Document Review…

System WorkflowHuman Workflow

Windows Workflow Foundation

Business to Business• Supply Chain Mgmt…Business to Business• Supply Chain Mgmt…

Line of Business Apps• Quote to Cash, Sales Automation…

Line of Business Apps• Quote to Cash, Sales Automation…CRM ERP

IT Management• New Hire Provisioning, Trouble Ticket,…

IT Management• New Hire Provisioning, Trouble Ticket,…

.NET Developer• Pageflow, Service Coordination…

.NET Developer• Pageflow, Service Coordination…

Src: COM210 Introduction to Workflow in Windows Applications (Bill Devlin and Paul Andrew)

Why Workflow Technology?

““Orders are confirmed in Orders are confirmed in 48 hours and shipped within 30 48 hours and shipped within 30

days.days.””

““Most suppliersMost suppliersconfirm our orders but some forget confirm our orders but some forget

and we need to and we need to followupfollowup..””

““What are the next steps in handling What are the next steps in handling this order?this order?””

Real World Examples Real World Examples Workflow ValueWorkflow Value--AddAdd

Long Running and Long Running and StatefulStatefulWorkflows Workflows need to run over an need to run over an

extended period extended period =>=> need to maintain stateneed to maintain state

Flexible Control FlowFlexible Control FlowGive users flexibility to skip steps Give users flexibility to skip steps

If necessaryIf necessary

TransparencyTransparencyGiven a defined control flow,Given a defined control flow,

users can see the next activitiesusers can see the next activitiesat a glance at a glance

ROI from Workflow Models

Useful for developers duringdevelopment and

debugging

Domain-specificlanguage for defining

workflow models +

Out-of-box Constructs

Runtime uses the modelto produce event stream

+Support for long running workflow

(state management & compensation)

Check the modelin a high-level waywithout additional

developmenteffort

Models beget Models! Combining severalworkflows

Modifying workflowon the fly

Visualization Expressiveness Execution Monitoring

Transformation Composition Manipulation

Unified Way of looking at workflows!

Src: Dave Green’s Weblog

Goals of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

• Provide a single engine for workflow execution for all applications built on the Windows paltform

• Support a wide range of scenarios• Bring model-driven workflow development to the

entire WinFX development community• Enable re-usage workflow component

development through strong extensibility points and ensure developers and ISVs can embed this technology in their applications

Workflow Tenets

• Workflow are long-running and stateful• Workflows are transparent and dynamic

through their lifecycle• Workflows coordinate work performed by

people and their software

WF is NOT

• A stand-alone application!• A server!• A complete out-of-the box workflow solution!• One particular language

WF is …

• A framework for developing workflow applications• Part of WinFX

WF Requirements

• O/S: – Windows Vista– Windows Server 2003 (SP1)– Windows XP (SP2)

• VS.NET 2005

• VS 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation

Windows Workflow Foundation –Engine Architecture

Activity and Rule Authoring APIs

Workflow Model

Out of Box Activities

Sequential State Machine PolicyCustomActivities

RuntimeWorkflow Execution

Scheduler Rules

Tracking Infrastructure

Workflow Lifecycle Management

State Management Activation

Hosting

CustomServices

Runtime ServicesPersistence

Tracking

Communication

Transactions

Timer

Threading

Host Process

WF Basics

• A workflow consists of a set of Activities– A workflow is an activity!

• An activity is a step in a workflow, and is the unit of execution, re-use, and composition for a workflow– Simple Activity– Composite Activity

Out-of-the-box activities • Control flow

– Sequence, Paralle, While, IfElse, Listen, EventDrivent, ConditionedActivityGroup (CAG), Replicator, Delay

• Transaction and Exception Activities– ExceptionHanlder, Throw, Compensate, Suspend,

Terminate• Data/form-centric

– UpdateData, SelectData, WaitForData, WaitForQuery

• Communication– InvokeWebService, WebServiceReceive,

WebServiceResponse, InvokeMethod, EventSink• Code Activity

– Code

Workflow Host

• Can be hosted in any applications– E.g. Any .Net application – WinForms,

ASP.Net, ….• Specialized Host

Host Process

WindowsWorkflow Foundation

Runtime Engine

A Workflow

An Activity

Runtime Services

Base Activity Library

Custom Activity Library

Visual DesignerWF Overview

• Visual Designer Graphical and code-based construction

• Base Activity Library- Out-of-box fundamental activities for defining workflow - Extensible base for defining custom activities

• Runtime Engine– Workflow Execution– State Management– Tracking Infrastructure– Dynamic Update

• Runtime ServicesHosting flexibility and Communication

– Persistence– Communication– Tracking

Evolving WF Activities

– OOB activities, workflow types, base types

– General-purpose– Activity libraries

define workflowconstructs

– Create/Extend/ Compose activities

– App-specific building blocks

– First-class citizens

Base ActivityLibrary

Custom Activity Libraries

Author new activity

Out-of-Box Activities

Extend activity

Compose activities

– Vertical-specific activities & workflows

– Best-practice IP & Knowledge

Domain-Specific Workflow Packages

Compliance

RosettaNet

CRM

IT Mgmt

Src: COM210 Introduction to Workflow in Windows Applications (Bill Devlin and Paul Andrew)

Types of Workflow• 2 built-in workflow types

– Sequential workflow:• Prescriptive, formal• Automation scenarios• Flowchart metaphor

– State-Machine workflow• Reactive, event-driven• Skip/re-work, exception

handling• Graph metaphor

• Developers can define their own workflow types

Sequential workflow

State-Machine workflow

Types of Workflow• 2 built-in workflow types

– Sequential workflow:• Prescriptive, formal• Automation scenarios• Flowchart metaphor

– State-Machine workflow• Reactive, event-driven• Skip/re-work, exception

handling• Graph metaphor

• Developers can define their own workflow types

Expressing Workflow

• Code• Markup (XAML/XOML)• Code + markup

Workflow Authoring Modes

.NET assembly• ctor defines

workflow

Markup OnlyMarkup Only““DeclarativeDeclarative””

XAMLXAML

Markup andMarkup andCodeCode

C#/VBC#/VB

Code OnlyCode Only ApplicationApplicationGeneratedGenerated

XAMLXAML C#/VBC#/VB

•• XML definesXML definesworkflow structureworkflow structurelogic and data flowlogic and data flow

•• XML definesXML definesworkflowworkflow•• CodeCode--beside beside defines extra logic defines extra logic

•• Code createsCode createsworkflowworkflowin constructorin constructor XAMLXAML C#/VBC#/VB

App creates activityApp creates activitytree and serializestree and serializes

Workflow Compilerwfc.exe

C#/VB Compiler

Src: COM210 Introduction to Workflow in Windows Applications (Bill Devlin and Paul Andrew)

XOML Example<?Mapping XmlNamespace="ComponentModel"

ClrNamespace="System.Workflow.ComponentModel" Assembly="System.Workflow.ComponentModel" ?>

<?Mapping XmlNamespace="Compiler" ClrNamespace="System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler" Assembly="System.Workflow.ComponentModel" ?>

<?Mapping XmlNamespace="Activities" ClrNamespace="System.Workflow.Activities" Assembly="System.Workflow.Activities" ?>

<?Mapping XmlNamespace="RuleConditions" ClrNamespace="System.Workflow.Activities.Rules" Assembly="System.Workflow.Activities" ?>

<?Mapping XmlNamespace="System" ClrNamespace="System" Assembly="mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" ?>

<SequentialWorkflow x:Class="WorkflowLibrary2.Workflow2" x:CompileWith="Workflow2.xoml.vb" ID="Workflow2" xmlns:x="Definition" xmlns="Activities"><Code ID="code1" /><Delay TimeoutDuration="00:00:00" ID="delay1" /><Code ID="code2" />

</SequentialWorkflow>

System.Workflow

• 3 main namespaces– System.Workflow.Activities– System.Workflow.ComponentModel– System.Workflow.Runtime

• About 450+ classes

Explore the WF APIs +

Manipulating the XOML files

Starting the WorkflowDim workflowRuntime As New WorkflowRuntime()workflowRuntime.StartRuntime()AddHandler

workflowRuntime.WorkflowCompleted, AddressOf OnWorkflowCompleted

Dim type As System.Type = GetType(OrderWorkflow)

workflowRuntime.StartWorkflow(type)

WaitHandle.WaitOne()workflowRuntime.StopRuntime()...

Steps• Instantiate the WorkflowRuntime• Start the Runtime• Start the workflow• Wait for completion• Stop the Runtime

VS.NET 2005Simple Sequential Workflow

Workflow Communications with .Net

• To support the interaction– Define a contract for communication (.Net interface) – Register the implementation of the interface with the workflow

runtime • Workflow runtime mediates between the exchange of

events between worfklow instance and the .Net application• Queues used to exchange information between the host

application and the workflow– Key: The separation, or proxy layer allows workflow instance to

hydrate and dehydrate without using any in-memory references that may be held by host application.

WF Communication Stack

DistributedApplication Host

Message Queues

LocalApplication Host

LocalCommunication

Service

DataActivities

Web Services

Data activities vs Local Services

• Data activities– Payload of the information being transferred

must be of the same Type or Object class– Two built-in events: data queries and data saves

• Local Services– Inbound payload does not have not match the

outbound payload– Unlimited events

Communication between .Net application and workflow instance

Data Activities

State-Machine Workflow

Dehydration vs RehydrationWorkflow InstancesWorkflow Instances

UnloadLoad

• To allow workflow instances to be durable across restarts of the Workflowruntime or the host applications

• Persistence Service (i.e. SqlStatePersistenceService) provides the ability to persist and restore the entire state of a workflow instance to a durable data source (e.g. SQL Server, file)

Looking forward…..

ApplicationApplication

WWF RuntimeWWF Runtime

Developer Ecosystem

WorkflowsWorkflows

Workflow DevelopersWorkflow DevelopersMinimal coding, full authoring Minimal coding, full authoring environmentenvironment

Activity DevelopersActivity DevelopersCustom execution & validation logicCustom execution & validation logic

Host DevelopersHost DevelopersApplication services & hostApplication services & host

Flow Flow LogicLogic

ServicesServices Custom Custom ServicesServices

Custom Custom ActivitiesActivities

Src: COM327, Hosting and Communications in Workflow Scenarios, Israel Hilerio, Ph.D. Program Manager Microsoft Corporation

WF in Action –Office 12

Workflow Designer(Professional Developer)

- Design workflow schedule,activities, forms and code

in Visual Studio- Compiles Schedule into assemblies

Workflow Designer(Knowledge Worker)

- Design no-code workflow schedule (based on pre-trusted activities) in FrontPage

- Workflow is compiled the first time it is run

SharePoint List or Site Administrator

- Associate a workflow with a list, document library or content type making it available to

items in that scope- Complete a workflow specific association form

which parameterizes the workflow

End User Initiator- Office or Sharepoint user starts a worfklow manually

through menu commands or automatically by creating an item or changing an item

End User Participant- Receive a task notification through email

- Complete the task using a task form from within Sharepoint or Office

Some activities omitted

BizTalk Server

MessagingMessagingDesignDesignToolsTools

BusinessBusinessActivityActivityMonitorMonitor

AndAndAdminAdminToolsTools

OrchestrationOrchestration

TransformationTransformation

AdaptersAdapters

BizTalk ServerAcceleratorsAccelerators

•• Future version will migrate to Windows Future version will migrate to Windows Workflow Foundation for orchestrationWorkflow Foundation for orchestration

WorkflowWorkflow

WF action!

• K2.Net (BlackPearl)• Skelta.Net (Aquila)• Epicor• Captaris

Conclusion

• Overview of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

• Interaction between WWF with WinFormsand ASP.Net Application

• Experience WF today!

Windows Workflow FoundationWindows Workflow FoundationResources• Download Beta1.2 or Beta2 at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workflow• http://www.windowsworkflow.net/• http://winfx.msdn.microsoft.com/library/• http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/workflow

Thank you!